DENVER (AP) Anze Kopitar was asked over and over about scoring four goals. All he wanted to do was talk about earning two points. That’s the No. 1 figure on his mind.”I’m playing for the guys in here. Our goal is to make the playoffs Authentic Erik Karlsson Jersey Kids ,” Kopitar said . ”That’s all it comes down to.”Still, it was a pretty special evening for the Los Angeles captain.Kopitar became the first Kings player with a four-goal game since 1993, Jonathan Quick stopped 29 shots and LA picked up another valuable road win by cruising past the Colorado Avalanche 7-1 on Thursday night.Kopitar was so efficient that he picked up his fourth career hat trick with 7:33 remaining in the second period. He added another goal early in the third. This was the first four-goal game by a Kings player since Luc Robitaille accomplished the feat on Nov. 25, 1993, at Quebec.”He’s elite. He’s one of the best players in the league,” said Kopitar’s teammate Nate Thompson, who had two assists. ”I have a first-row seat and it’s fun to watch.”Not if you’re on the other side. The Avalanche simply couldn’t stop him.”He’s a world-class player for a reason,” Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. ”He showed that tonight.”Tobias Rieder had two goals and Jake Muzzin scored his first since Feb. 3 for the Kings, who surpassed Anaheim for the third spot in the Pacific Division. Los Angeles improved to 6-0-2 over its last eight road games.Quick allowed an early goal to Mikko Rantanen and was stellar after that in a game that had a playoff feel. Well, at least early Jean-Gabriel Pageau Jersey , before the Kings reeled off seven unanswered goals.”They came out pretty hard the first five minutes. … We settled in and played our game, our road game, our team game,” Thompson said. ”I thought we played a pretty complete game.”The Kings beat an Avalanche team that’s 15-3-1 in its last 19 games on home ice. Colorado remains in a wild-card spot with eight games remaining.Time to scoreboard watch?”You’ve got to be careful watching the scoreboard because it’s wasted emotion,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. ”We’re concentrating on what we have to do to get in.”Semyon Varlamov showed signs of fatigue in giving up five goals before being replaced by backup Jonathan Bernier in the second period. Varlamov has appeared in 19 straight games (17 starts) with Bernier sidelined by a concussion. Bernier returned Thursday and allowed two goals.It’s the third time this season the Avs have allowed seven goals.Trailing 3-1, Nathan MacKinnon clanged one off the crossbar seconds into the second period. Moments later, Rieder found himself on a breakaway and beat Varlamov with a wrist shot.That pretty much wrapped things up. About the only drama was Kopitar’s hat-trick quest.He recorded his first hat trick since Feb. 12, 2016, with a backhander in the second period. Some of the fans at the Pepsi Center littered the ice with hats. He wasn’t done there, though Mark Stone Jersey , scoring his fourth on a breakaway.”I just felt all night that the puck was kind of following me around,” Kopitar said. ”It worked out for me tonight.”At 30, Kopitar’s turning in his best statistical season with 86 points.”We’re all happy for him,” Thompson said. ”He’s usually the guy that’s dishing the puck, a pass-first kind of guy. He can score goals, too, apparently. It was a pleasure to watch.”Colorado took a 1-0 lead 3:33 into the game when Gabriel Landeskog kicked a sliding puck over to Rantanen, who rocketed it into the net. The advantage lasted all of 55 seconds.MacKinnon had an assist to extend his point streak to a career-best 14 games. It was also his 92nd point of the season, the most by an Avalanche player since Joe Sakic had 100 in 2006-07.NOTES: Quick was credited with his fourth assist of the season on Rieder’s goal. … Dustin Brown had two assists. … Avs F Carl Soderberg missed a second straight game with an illness. … D Tyson Barrie had his 11-game point streak snapped. … Rantanen and MacKinnon both have 21 points in March, the most in the NHL.UP NEXTKings: Finish a four-game trip on Saturday in Edmonton.Avalanche: Host Vegas on Saturday.— BUFFALO Youth Matt Duchene Jersey , N.Y. (AP) — Frantic as the final minute appeared, Buffalo Sabres goalie Carter Hutton reveled in the challenge of staring down Nikita Kucherov and the high-scoring Tampa Bay Lightning.“It was mayhem,” Hutton said after stopping 29 shots to preserve a 2-1 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Lightning on Tuesday night.“Truthfully, you embrace the battle,” he added. “You get to show what you’re made of and it was fun.”It was a lot more fun for him after Kucherov hit the same post twice in the final 30 seconds from essentially the same spot in the lower right circle. The second opportunity came when Steven Stamkos fed a pass through the middle to Kucherov, whose one-timer hit the post and caromed wide just before the final buzzer.No problem, Hutton said with a wide grin. He had the angle covered.Jeff Skinner scored his team-leading 13th goal and Kyle Okposo also scored, and the suddenly resurgent Sabres won their third straight. Defenseman Nathan Beaulieu had two assists, and Buffalo improved to 10-6-2 for its best start since opening 11-7 in 2011-12.Anthony Cirelli scored for the Lightning, who lost consecutive games for the first time since an 0-3 skid from March 24-29 last season. Lightning backup Louis Domingue finished with 17 saves.After slamming his stick on the glass as the game ended Mike Condon Jersey , Kucherov’s frustrations carried over into the locker room upon being reminded of his two missed opportunities.“My thoughts? It (stinks) when you don’t score,” he said. “Sometimes it happens. It happened today. For us, forget this game as soon as possible and move forward.”The Sabres limited the NHL’s top offense to one goal after Tampa Bay had scored four or more in each of its past five games.Skinner opened the scoring with 2:15 left in the first period, when he was parked in front and converted a rebound after Domingue stopped Sam Reinhart’s shot from the top of the right circle.The Sabres somehow matched the Lightning in scoring one goal apiece in the second period despite being outshot 14-2.Hutton held the fort in making numerous clutch stops starting from the opening minute, when he foiled Stamkos driving in alone across the front.Okposo put Buffalo up 2-0 at the 5:43 mark of the period when he used defender Victor Hedman as a screen and scored on a low shot from the right circle that fooled Domingue.The Lightning responded 15 seconds later, when Alex Killorn flipped a pass from his own blue line and over two Sabres defenders, including a leaping Rasmus Dahlin. The puck landed on the stick of Cirelli, who scored on a breakaway by beating Hutton high on the glove side.The Sabres’ three-game winning streak is their second of the season. Buffalo won three straight just once a year ago, when the team finished last in the NHL standings for the third time in five seasons.Though relieved to pull out the win, Okposo said the Sabres were too passive in trying to nurse the one-goal lead.“We were on our heels a little too much Ryan Dzingel Jersey ,” he said. “We weren’t sharp. We’ve got to clean up some stuff. I know we’ve won the last three games, but we probably only played real good for a period and a half.”Okposo then laughed when asked if he would’ve complained after a three-game winning streak last season.“Yeah, probably not,” he said. “But our standard’s higher this year.”NOTES: Lightning D Erik Cernak made his NHL debut after being called up from Syracuse of the AHL earlier in the day. The 21-year-old replaced Anton Stralman, who missed his second game with an upper-body injury. … The Sabres are 6-2-1 at home, a year after matching a franchise low with 11 home wins. … Sabres C Patrik Berglund was a healthy scratch, with C Zemgus Girgensons returning after being a healthy scratch against Vancouver on Saturday. …Lightning LW Adam Erne left the ice holding his jaw after being struck by a shot from teammate Ryan Callahan with 6:44 left in the second. Erne returned before the period was over.UP NEXTLightning: Continue four-game road trip at Pittsburgh on Thursday night.Sabres: Open three-game road trip at Winnipeg on Friday night.